


Wild Card

by THRILLHO



Series: Bright Lights, Eight Nights of Broten [7]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Drama, Gen, My attempt at angst, Outer Space, Strained Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28121511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/THRILLHO/pseuds/THRILLHO
Summary: Bulla is the last person Goku wants to be stuck on a space ship with but she’s the only person he needs to be there.
Relationships: Bulla Briefs/Son Goten, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Bright Lights, Eight Nights of Broten [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049801
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	Wild Card

**Author's Note:**

> Another challenge from vagusvagus
> 
> Prompt: There's only one bed 🛏
> 
> And the wild card: natural disaster 🌪
> 
> Bonus challenge: For any given one shot, Goku is a main character alongside Bulla (and whoever else).

He dared take a brief glance of her and saw her twiddling her ring around her finger, looking out into nothing. She was very quiet throughout this whole trip and he was wrong to think it would change now.

“Shit,” Bulla said.

That was the first thing she said in hours and it was enough to make Goku stop his push-ups. Mostly she communicated like her father with grunts and hmms, leaving Goku to guess the positivity or negativity of her responses.

Before he could ask what was going on, Bulla was at the controls, frantically pushing buttons and toggling switches. To her credit, she kept her cool and followed whatever protocol she was taught.

“What is it?” he dared to ask. He expected a, ‘Not know, Goku,’ or some other snappish response but she could not spare the attention to tell him off.

“Solar flare, a huge one, coming at us head on” she said and went back to work. Suddenly, Goku found himself thrown across the ship as Bulla steered sharply to the left. “You might want to strap yourself in, Goku.”

He did as she suggested but was still unsure of what was going on. Who did the Solar Flare? It certainly wasn’t him! Was there an alien around who knew the Earth technique? Despite his desire to question her—and if she was anyone else, he would have—he kept silent, noticing her biting her lip with more force than she usually did, the tight skin around her whitening knuckles, and the way she stood ram-rod straight in her seat, staring ahead with focused eyes. 

The entire ship was shaking. Goku looked to the view screen to see what Bulla was up to, only to see she was making her way to a planet, and not one he recognized. “What are you doing? This isn’t New Namek,” Goku couldn’t stop himself from saying.

“I’ll explain later,” Bulla said through gritted teeth, “For now, the best thing you can do is to stay where you are and  _ be quiet _ .” Even Chi-Chi didn’t have that kind of control of him; he could never sit still in a crisis. Although Bulla looked calm, nothing about her posture suggested that she was and he felt compelled to help somehow.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Bulla said unexpectedly as the ship rocked again, “You can help by doing nothing.”

It was an agonizing few minutes but soon the turbulence stopped and Goku noted the view changed from the blackness of space to blurs of light pink turning to red and then red-orange like they were in the inside of a flame. Goku no longer felt the jolt of being pulled through the air; it was now more of a glide. He looked to his crewmate—not who he would have chosen to accompany him, or vice-versa—relieved that she let out a huge breath. She relinquished her tight grip of the wheel, no longer biting her lip, and sunk into her seat. That hardly made sense to Goku; they were inside of a fireball!

“I think we had some help back there,” Bulla said, surprising Goku; she was hardly talkative, maybe she got that from Vegeta. “Good thing there was a planet with a magnetic field to land on close by or we might have been a wish too.”

“What? Why? The Solar Flare is a defensive attack. It probably couldn’t have seriously hurt us.”

He saw the rolling of her eyes but not much else. “Not that,” she said. “You can go back to your lunges or whatever. We’ll probably descend in about an hour.”

Goku did not appreciate her dismissal of him but recognized that she might be right. Whatever she would explain might go over his head.

He could only do so many sit-ups while his curiosity overwhelmed him. Exercise was a great way to get rid of his frustrated energy but it wasn’t cutting it this time. If he was right, there were about thirty more minutes before they landed and he didn’t know why they were landing. Now was not the time for side adventures, his muscles tensed at the idea of wasting any more time.

He saw no point in trying to pretend their relationship was easy. “Bulla,” he addressed her without his normal light way of speaking. To him, she needed to be handled like an unrepentant enemy. “Tell me why we’re stopping and delaying. You should want to get to Namek as fast as me.”

“I want to get to Namek faster than anyone,” she said, turning her head to him sharply, a scowl on her face. She looked like the perfect mixture of Bulma and Vegeta then. “I have to land so we can make it there instead of being dead in space. I don’t like it anymore than you do.”

“Forgive me if it’s hard to trust your judgement,” Goku snapped. Her eyes grew big and her lips parted. He might as well have slapped her with the sharp intake of breath she took was any indication. 

“Let me dumb it down for you.” Her head swiveled back to the viewscreen. “Light travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second,” Bulla said, focused on piloting. “Granted we’re going faster than that but the only way to escape a solar flare, as in a wave of electromagnetic radiation dead in the middle of space is to find shelter on a planet with a geomagnetic field. It deflects the particles from the sun that would otherwise kill our equipment and strand us in space with no way to communicate to anyone that might be able to save us. That is if we were lucky enough not to be killed by the intense ultraviolet waves.

“And thanks to your spirit being so imbalanced we wouldn’t be able to instant transmit to safety and because of that fact, we need to take a ship to New Namek in the first place with all the risk that entails.” It didn’t happen often but Goku felt his face heat up and he did all he could to avoid Bulla’s gaze though she had little reason to look at him while she tried to land their spaceship.

It was silent for the rest of the descent but Goku was not relieved when Bulla glided the ship down. It was so gentle that she hadn’t even told Goku to strap himself into his seat. There was a niggling in the back of his mind that worse was yet to come.

“They can last as long as ten days. If I had to guess, we’re in for a twelve hour wait before we can go back in space and not get caught up in the solar storm.” Bulla unstrapped herself and started to move about the cabin gathering a few things. “Either way, we can’t be sure. It’s best if we find some other accommodations to conserve fuel. It took more than I anticipated to change course. What we have will only get us so far.” She still didn’t look at him as she went about her tasks and opened the hatch to the outside.

“Do we know if it’s safe?” Goku dared to ask.

“I did a quick scan when I looked for places to land,” she began. Goku had not seen her do anything but work some buttons and switches but she was good with technology and stuff. “This planet has an atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen, in other words, air. I spotted an estuary while we were descending, with any luck, it will lead us to fresh water.” She finished gathering what she wanted and slung the bag over her shoulder. “Follow me, I’m going to encapsulate this.” Knowing Bulla didn’t hesitate with her decisions and followed her without argument. Indeed, once he made his way down the ramp, Bulla pushed a button and the ship disappeared in a puff of smoke. As Bulla had said, the air was refreshing and clean to Goku, especially after days of recycled air on the ship and the weather was temperate and sunny. If Goku had to guess, it was entering late afternoon on this side of the planet.

“The scan didn’t show much life, you can feel it, can’t you?” Bulla turned and asked him. She looked a little disturbed. Goku hadn’t felt for any energies of his own volition. It was the last thing on his mind when faced with the fact their trip to New Namek was delayed. He clenched his fists thinking about it. 

“Goku, focus!” Bulla reprimanded him, drawing him out of his thoughts. “It’s eerie. I saw buildings but I can’t sense anything stronger than a house cat.”

Goku shut his eyes tight and tried to reach his senses out to feel for any sentient energies but he couldn’t concentrate, the anger and frustration he tried to suppress overwhelmed his senses.  _ What did Goten ever see in her? _

“It’s no use,” Goku said, opening his eyes to see a waiting Bulla with her arms crossed. “I can’t do it.”

“Can you muster some physical energy to fly?” Bulla asked and raised herself into the air. That he could do. He always found physical energy came easier to him than mental or spiritual energies. He nodded and levitated himself like Bulla had done. She seemed to have a place in my mind because her flight plan looked deliberate, turning, slowing down, speeding up, descending, and ascending when they reached certain landmarks like mountains and forests. Finally, she stopped and landed near a body of water.

“Let’s see if one of those buildings can accommodate us,” she jerked her head, drawing his line of sight to a few dilapidated houses far apart in the picturesque landscape. The whole scenery was green with trees, flowers, and grasses with most of the structures being boulders. It reminded him a lot of his childhood on Mount Paozu with his Grandpa Gohan. 

The first house they inspected had its roof caved in. Bulla said it wouldn’t work in case there was a storm and she did not intend to spend her time on this planet as a wet mess. The next one was intact but had broken windows and was devoid of any furniture of any kind. 

“Hopefully this is our Goldilocks house,” Bulla said, pushing the door to the third house open. Goku had no idea what ‘goldilocks’ meant but he hoped this house was it. Bulla had the food and once they stopped, he would get to eat.

This house was made of bricks like the others and just one big room, a lot like his grandpa’s house. There was a small fireplace and not much else except for a few clay jars and a large bed. 

“One window,” Goku pointed out to Bulla. She wasn’t paying attention to him, instead, she stared at the bed in a trance.

“This reminds me of me and your mom when we were younger,” Goku said as he flopped on the bed. It wasn’t as soft as the one he had at home. 

“I’m not my mom,” she responded with indifference, her line of sight on him but her eyes were focused elsewhere. That’s how it was with the two of them. Whatever he said made her prickly in a way that unsettled him, a deadly combination from her mother and father. Vegeta would be outright aggressive but anyone could see he was never as bothered as he appeared. With Bulma, she would never outright say what Goku did that bothered her but she showed her true emotions. As a result, he never knew how to act around her.

“Don’t worry, I know how girls are. You can have the bed and I’ll take the floor.” He figured that’s what she was testy about this time. If she had heard any stories from Bulma about their first dragon ball hunt, he understood why she would be wary but he had learned a lot since then. He could tell boys from girls about eighty percent of the time.

Bulla didn’t respond, she didn’t even move. Her face was more pale than usual as her lower lip shook. Her eyes were still focused on the bed and him in it.  _ Was she going to cry? _

“No,” she said and shook her head. “I don’t want the bed.”

Even though he was happy to accommodate her, Goku remembered the manners Chi-Chi and Bulma taught him and the threats Vegeta gave him. “I insist.”

“I said I don’t want it!” she hissed. He barely had enough time to move before she sent a fiery ball of energy at the bed, destroying it.

“It doesn’t mean ya had to destroy it,” Goku said, dusting the charred bits that landed on his pants. 

Bulla began to silently unpack the supplies she had gathered from the ship, setting up a sleeping area from them and some science-y looking stuff. Before he could ask, Bulla anticipated his request and tossed a capsule that he barely managed to catch.

“Here, it’s a fully stocked fridge, help yourself to whatever.”

The house wasn’t very large to begin with and he had enough experience with capsules to know they were best opened outdoors. He left Bulla by herself and felt instantly relieved. This was the first time they hadn’t been in each other’s company for days. With his senses still not working, he opted to open the fridge instead of hunting for something fresh. Bulla might have cautioned him about eating alien life but he much preferred fresh kills but he could smell nothing, not even the smallest birds or lizards. What had happened here? The planet was clearly inhabitable. 

The growling of his stomach distracted him from his questions and he opened the fridge to see lots and lots of meat. Bulma sure knew what he liked and needed.

He set up a spit himself expecting the smell of barbecued meat to entice Bulla outside but she never came. He opted to save her a bit as a peace offering to reduce the tension between them. When he went inside, she was staring off into space again, absentmindedly twiddling the ring on her left hand.

“I brought you something,” he said, showing her the chunk of meat in his hands. She barely glanced at him before she shook her head of whatever she was thinking about.

“No thank you,” she said and continued to look at her instruments. “The flare is still battering this planet but luckily we’re not due for any extreme weather. It’s so odd though, there’s no evidence of any sort of cataclysm, natural or man made and yet there is no one here, unless they have undetectable energy but that’s never been the case in this universe…” she trailed off.

He knew what she was doing, she was trying to distract him like she did many times the past week. He needed to be firm with her for the sake of her family and Goten, most of all. “Bulla,” he started, staring her down. “Don't think I haven’t noticed you barely eating. I’ve seen you before, you have an appetite of a Saiyan. What would Goten say—”

“Keep his name out of your mouth,” she turned on him. She looked bigger and more imposing than she actually was. “And don’t pretend you’re concerned about me,” she snapped.

Goku wasn’t about to back down. He had been doing so much of that lately where she was concerned, far too intimidated to lose his patience. “Maybe I’m not but I know Goten cares and when he gets back—”

“Stop it!” she screamed. “Where do you get off talking about what Goten cares about? You were never around, you always left at the first sign of personal enrichment.”

He didn’t know what personal enrichment meant but he took offense at her words. “All I ever did was train to get strong enough so I could protect my family!” Goku yelled back at her. He felt his tenuous control of his tumultuous spirit slipping. His ki was diffusing from where he kept it contained in his center, threatening to unleash itself.

“You were never around!” Bulla said again. If he had control of his ki, he might feel the unrest in her spirit but he was far too gone to care. Each accusation Bulla hurled at him was another knife in the heart. “Maybe if you were, you would have noticed something was wrong!” The tears she had refused to shed before began to pool in the corner of her eyes. “You were his father. If you—”

“And what about you?” he shouted. “You were there that night! We trusted you to take care of our son!” Goku felt the hot wetness on his face as he too looked for someone to blame.

Instead of firing back, Bulla backed down and collapsed on her knees becoming a bawling mess. “Y-you’re right,” she managed to get out in between heaving breaths. Goku no longer had it in his heart to fight with her. “I keep replaying it in my mind. We had gone to bed so relaxed, nothing was out of the ordinary. If I...Goku, I swear!” She pleaded. “I didn’t know he wasn’t feeling well. Please believe me, he never said anything.”

His anger at Bulla dissipated into thin air as he felt his guilt crashing down on him. “No, Bulla,” he shook his head and joined her on his knees, his legs having given out after he was ready to face his culpability. “He was born like that, the doctor said it was Sarah…” he said trying to recall the name even though it was no use; he wasn’t good with big words.

“Cerebral arteriovenous malformation,” Bulla answered quietly through her tears. She was always really smart, that’s why Goten liked her. “We lived together, I should have noticed his headaches, taken him to the doctor…” He understood then why the most powerful beings in this universe were so protective of her, especially his son. Her devastated face cut him to his core and he could barely stand to see her so heartbroken because she was normally so proud and strong.

“I’m sorry, about everything I said,” Goku offered, wiping his own tears away. “No, Bulla, no one blames you. Not even me. I’m just mad I couldn’t do more. What good is all this power if I couldn’t save my son from a natural death? I’m so useless—” Goku felt his frustration overwhelm him and he let out a strong—but weak for him—punch to the floor, cracking the foundation. “If I had my instant transmission we might have him back already.”

“And what if the Namekian dragon balls can’t bring him back from a natural death either?” Bulla asked quietly.

“They’ll find a way.”  _ I don’t know what I’ll do if they can’t. _

**Author's Note:**

> The latest manga arc had some interesting information about Yardrat. Apparently to learn and use their techniques, one needs a balanced spirit. I thought it would be interesting to take that away from Goku.


End file.
